"Abortion is a sin. It's a sin of murder. "

I don't really know what to say about this, other than when pastor Mark said those words yesterday at church, I immediately felt like I should post them as my status on facebook. Did I follow the call of the Spirit? Not so much. You see, I live in SEATTLE. The most pro-grass anti-baby city in the United States, perhaps. God... He always asks us to do things that are so uncomfortable!

But now that the status is on my page and I'm fearfully awaiting replies of condemnation... Here are the views that I've formed on this topic, after painful research and a lot of analysis. They are, of course, much easier said than done, and I really really hope that I will never be in a situation to have to prove how strong my convictions are.

Abortion is NEVER an option in my mind. I'm not even going to go into serious discussion about such weak arguments as "not being ready" for a baby and a woman's right to choose. I'm very pro a woman's right to choose. Execute that right when you are deciding to be promiscuous and have sex before marriage. Execute that right to think about the consequences of your actions before you jump into bed with a man who doesn't want to father a child and is not your husband. If you are married and still not ready for a baby and it comes anyways... Hopefully you have considered that there IS a chance of that. Is financial stability or a career really worth more than a LIFE to you?

The more difficult arguments are the ones worthy of discussion. What if you were raped?
My take is to still keep the child. It's not the baby's fault. And no matter how unfathomably painful it was, is, or will be...  know that God can turn people's sin against you into a good thing. He never meant for you to get hurt in such an inhumane way. And it wasn't your choice to conceive. But it IS your choice to keep a life. I don't really want to go into more discussion about this because I don't want to seem insensitive or unloving to victims of rape. I have no understanding of what they go through, and I actually hope to never gain that understanding. All I want them to know is that I've thought and prayed about this for a long time, and it's not a fed-from-the-pulpit cliché that I'm repeating to appear righteous.

Another situation I hope to never be in is having to choose between your life and the babies'. What if the doctors say that if there is no abortion, the mother will die from complications? If the baby lives, I'm ready to give up my life for him or her. But what if there's very small chance that either one survives? Then take it. Take the chance that your child will live. Once again, this is a complicated, complicated matter that I feel like I have no right to talk about because I've never been in either situation, and hope to never have to be in it. But I feel convicted to state my beliefs. So here they all are.

If you have more arguments, opinions, or situations, please PLEASE comment! I would like to be aware of them, if nothing else, because this is a topic I actually care about quite a bit. Even though it took a lot of guts to bring it up.